Ranji Trophy: Odisha suffers batting collapse; Bengal take lead

Kolkata: In a day which saw wickets fall like a house of cards, West Bengal was able to gain an upper hand over visiting Odisha.

After being restricted for 142 in their first innings, Begal bowlers responded with equal potency and cleaned up Odisha for a meager 107. Amar Gani was the most successful bowler claiming six wickets. Pragyan Ojha and Anurag Tiwari claimed two wickets each.

For Odisha, Arabind Singh was the top scorer with 21 runs followed by Ranjit Singh with 20 runs.
At stumps on Day 1, Bengal had increased its lead to 58 runs in the second innings with 23 runs on scoreboard without any loss of wickets. Bengal openers AR Eswaran and Sayan Shekhar Mandal were at the crease unbeaten at 20, and 3 runs respectively.

Dhiraj Singh was the most successful bowler for Odisha claiming 5 wickets, while Suryakant Pradhan took three wickets. Jayant Behera and Govinda Poddar took one wicket each.

West Bengal’s batting looked shaky from the beginning with the host team losing wickets at regular intervals. After losing the first wicket for 2 runs, Bengal was kept on the back foot by the Odisha bowlers who removed 9 batsmen for a paltry score of 96.

However, Bengal managed to reach a total of 142 on the back of a A R Eswarana’s 88 runs who was the most successful batsman for the host team.